Zoho Sooooho Easy!

Assignment Number 9 (Better late than never)

Zoho...soho easy!

Okay, so here goes! Learning yet another online application... Zoho looks really interesting and useful. I can really see our organization benefiting from the feature that allows you to read and write/ edit, make comments, add pictures, etc all on and off line. THis seems easier to use than creating word documents then sending them back and forth via email. Why couldn't I have thought of this?! It's fantastic! I am sure thousands of people have been using it already for ages (three years to be exact). I am glad to have the opportunity to learn more about it.

I'm going to try adding a photo...

Wow, that was really easy and I like how you can view the image as you are editing it. Very cool. Now I shall try uploading this into my blog... and lookit that, it worked!!!

I could spend a lot of time navigating through all of these applications but I am definitely impressed with ZOHO soho far...

Assignment # 8 - Wikis

"What on earth is a Wiki"? I asked, as I looked upon out assignment this week. Sure I've heard of Wikipedia but really wasn't sure what it was or how it worked.

So I read the articles suggested and learned about the Hawaiian origin of the word and visited a few related sites, including Wikipedia and now I feel that I know a little bit more about what it is exactly, in terms of the Internet and our Web 2.0 training.

The pluses of Wikis, obviously are that you can get reams of information online about any given topic, from several different sources. Anyone is free to add, delete or revise the content, which is a pretty interesting concept; talk about "Free Speech"!

I looked up "Meal Worm Beetles" through Wikipedia, because my daughter had to bring home one of these amazing yet horribly ugly creatures home for her grade 2 Science Project and now that it's turned into a beetle, none of us knows what to feed it or how long it lives or what to do with it, really. I found tons of great easy to read info and links about these weird creatures and all was very relevant.

The negatives of Wikis, obviously are that you can get reams of information online about any given topic, from several different sources and anyone is free to add, delete or revise the content. Are you suffering from deja vu? You may be, because I wrote the same phrase under the pluses of Wikis. Sure it's great that anyone can play with the content, but it's also not great. I would tend not to trust the validity of most info I found, especially if one is looking for something really important like medical symptoms and diagnoses or something serious like that. But then again, many people do have wonderful knowledge to share and this is a fantastic venue to do so. As I am arguing my own points now, perhaps I should quit while I'm ahead...

...How can wikis benefit my organisation? I sure didn't know about Mfagan wiki - a list of data sources surrounding Waterloo that have a geographic component. All of those links are VERY relevant and useful as resources to community links, to assist our clients. I could create a wiki for other Employment Advisors working in the field and we could continuously add and update information as we got it. I could start a wiki for our clients who are looking for work, and list some great contacts and reference information. Downside? Anyone could conceivably come in and delete any or all content (from what I understand), or could place false or inaccurate information or negative content in the wiki, thereby devaluing the site and the content and possibility the reputation of the organisation as well. Now THAT wouldn't be good.

Assignment Seven

The break last week was very much appreciated and enjoyed and now we're back full throttle!

I've fallen behind and now I'm confused! I've just finished reading the article by Meredith Farkas and quite frankly I am left scratching my head with my forehead all in wrinkles and eyes and nose scrunched up. This woman writes in detail about something she assumes we know about and I quite honestly have no clue. Did I miss a tutorial on Library 2.0? I feel a tad bit out of the loop and therefore, I unfortunately do not have much of a perspective on this one. (I have been feeling rather "unsmart" during most of this program thus far but am glad to see, when I check through others' blogs that it's not just me feeling this way. PHEWPH! Other blogs are a little scary, in that these people have either a whole lot of experience using these tools already or are really really smart and quick studies, cause they just seem to ramble on using the new language, making reference to this and that. The expression "It's all 'Greek' to me" is going to change to "it's all Web 2.0 to me", ha ha.) But SERIOUSLY, I do recall learning about Library Thing (and there is reference to it in this article) but I don't think it's the same thing. Anyhow, maybe I should just check it out and quit wondering...
Working for a non profit organisation, I was naturally attracted to read "What Does Web 2.0 mean For Your non-Profit", and was excited to see some examples of how I might be able to directly apply what I have been learning to actually benefit my organisation. I even printed the article and I am thinking about forwarding it to our marketing director. The possibilities really are endless...and mind boggling, which kind of makes my head spin. (Maybe my brain is just too full but this is how I often feel...)

Power from the People: Assessing the New Online Participatory Tools for Your Organization
By Colin Delany was a long article, but overall good, in helping me again to see how I might apply what I am learning to my job. I love reading about the direct correlation between what I am learning and how it might benefit my organisation because, up to this point, I was feeling rather lost and disconnected with regard to how I might make use of what I have learned. So reading this article was good timing for me!

Rick Anderson's "Away from the Icebergs" was the final article I selected to read and was glad that I did. Great writer, I must say, very easy to follow and comprehend. This article had a little bit more info about Libraries and how Web 2.0 is effecting them - something I had honestly not considered much before- Now I (kinda) get what Meredith has written about (a little bit) better.

What does Web 2.0 mean to me? I am still trying to figure that out. As I have written almost each and every week now, until I get a chance to actually try these tools out more in depth and figure out how they work, I won't know how to benefit from them. I just gotta find the time! So precious these days, isn't it?...

Assignmemt #6

This week's asignment was back to complicated for me again.

I had to download QuickTime Player in order to view the Technorati tutorial, which in turn switched all my Media Player files into Quicktime, which I didn't really want to happen.

Technorati does seem like a great site and I loved the tutorial, as I am really a visual learner. Seeing the facilitator naviagte through the site was really helpful. As I navigated through the site itself, it seemed vaguely familiar to me. I think it might be a little like Bloglines, from Assignment #4. ish? All of these sites are kind of blurring together for me, so I really do hope that I will have time to use them each more and learn about what makes one better or more usable than the other. It's all about finding the extra time!!!

When I created a Delicious account, I was asked if I wanted to import my existing bookmarks, which I did, but didn't really know what I was doing when I did that. Now I have this Delicious feature come up everytime I open Internet Explorer and it is a great tool, don't get me wrong, but I feel like I really have no idea how to use it properly (yet). Once more, hopefully time to practice will help me learn what it is really about. I am a little leery about the feature in Delicious that allows you to view anyone else' s bookmarks and comments who has book marked the same site as you and allows others to view yours. One of those personal security/ information issues. Maybe there are ways to not allow others to view your bookmarks, but I wouldn't be sure how to go about getting that done.

So to complete this assignment and answer the question of the week: "Would Delicious be useful for my organisation?", I would say probably not, unless all staff had a good understanding of it and used it for the purpose of helping our clients to find employment information. It could be a useful tool to find additional websites that we might not have known about or to see what others think of sites, but overall, I think I would be more inclined to use it for personal reasons more so than work.

I am happy about next week's break. I think I'll use the time to practice what we've learned so far and hopefully learn to use these sites as they are meant to be used.

Assignment #5

What a beautiful weekend.
I am finding it hard to come inside to complete this assignment when everyone and their Uncle seems to be enjoying the great out doors, big turkey dinners and family gatherings.
Library Thing is awesome. I had no idea it existed. Thanks for opening my eyes to yet another great tool of the world wide web! It was very simple to create an account but very hard to pick my fav 5 to catalogue on my new account site so I just chose 5 books that came to mind.
Loooooooooove Facebook. Of course I got very easily distracted my all the invitations I had and returning emails to people I have not seen or heard from in like 20 years, but I did finally manage to get back to the task at hand, checking out the "Green: because you can" site there. Yet another cool group I was not aware of. Neat, since I am part of the Environmental Committee at work. SO I think it would be favourable for my organisation getting set up on facebook. Afterall, let's face it, everyone uses Facebook. It might help with spreading the word about our very own non profit organisation. Concerns? Yes, there are some. It would take only one person to write something bad about the organisation and that could spread like wildfire. One person is all it would take to say something dumb or unprofessional about us thus ruining all the good. Other concerns is that technically it may be dificult to access since our IT department has placed a block on all staff to access Facebook from work computers. If the block were to be removed, would the org then lose precious work time, based on how many staff would be all too tempted to spend time purusing the site and reconnecting with old friends? More than likely!

Here's my Assignment #3 link

As I mentioned in Assignment #4, I mistakenly created a new blog to post my assignment #3, so I've been trying to figure out how to copy and paste it into my first blog ever blog, but can't quite work it out, so the best I can do is put in the link for it. Better than nothing.
http://ccartwrightsfirstbolgever.blogspot.com/

Assignment #4

Assignment #4 I am finding, is almost as tricky as last week's. Almost. Cause I am not pulling out my hair yet, like I did last week trying to figure out how to post the FLICKR image onto my blog. THat was really challenging! But it shouldn't have been so hard, it's just all so new. Things do tend to get easier as you do them more and more often, though, so I'll remain optimistic.

Last week I created a new blog to post my assignment #3 and I shouldn't have but I wasn't sure how to post anything onto my first blog ever blog. Now I think I've figured it out. Except I can't quite figure out how to copy what I wrote for last weeks assignment and put it onto my first blog page. Trial and error with new learnings, as always.

Creating a Bloglines account was pretty easy. Adding new URLs and subscibing was easy too, thanks to the tutorials and visual aids. Topix.net and Syndic8.com are pretty neat places to go. I personally found Topix.net easiest to read and most user friendly. I like how I can chat with other community members. Weird that the site knew which community to link me to. Sometimes technology scares me. I am often asking "how did it know that ?" It's like sometimes thing seem too smart. Anyway, case in point, for some reason I could not access Feedster. But it's likely me doing something wrong, not technology's fault. Syndic8.com I found, was not so great.
RSS feeds are very cool. Seeing as how I have never read blogs or really used my computer for anything but email and research on internet, my eyes are opening wider and wider as each assignment is given us. I am learning sooo many new and very cool things! I just hope I get a chance to use them again or I am afraid, I may forget how.